11 minute read
Cover Story
A half century of local success for Find Insurance
CONNECTED recently sat down with Colin Mullan and Karen McQuillan from Find Insurance to discuss the local company’s fiftieth anniversary in business, serving the local community in the North West for half a century, and what the future holds for the business.
If you flick through old copies of CONNECTED, the magazine’s everpopular ‘Down Memory Lane’ feature gathers the thoughts and reminiscences of some of the North West’s longest serving and best-known business leaders. A common thread connecting them all is the assertion that Derry has changed remarkably for the better over the past number of decades.
Few businesses in the city know this better than Find Insurance, the familyowned, locally based independent insurance broker. The company is celebrating its fiftieth birthday in 2022, having been established back in 1972. It’s also been in the Mullan family since 1977 with Seamus and Elizabeth Mullan acquiring the company five years after its foundation. Since the early seventies, the business has flourished into one of Northern Ireland’s leading and largest independent insurance brokers, serving over 8000 commercial and personal policy holders across the country.
“The city and the North West more generally are totally unrecognisable from when the business was founded back in 1972”, explains Colin Mullan, Managing Director at Find Insurance. “Thankfully, Derry has blossomed over the past fifty years, and we are proud to have been on this journey over the past half century. “As an organisation, Find Insurance is fiercely proud to be Derry based. Our city is one of the most vibrant, welcoming, and talented places across our island and further afield. It’s always been incredibly important, going back to the days when my parents ran the business, that Find Insurance remained committed to Derry and the North West, and I think we’ve proven that over the past fifty years.”
Find Insurance has grown from fairly humble beginnings in the early seventies to a local success story with a turnover of over £17m in the last financial year. Fittingly, in this milestone year for the business, Find Insurance has also been recognised for its excellence on numerous occasions. “We were absolutely delighted to be crowned Small Business of the Year at the North West Business Awards during the summer”, says Karen McQuillan, Finance Director at Find Insurance. “While awards aren’t the be all and end all in your professional life, it’s always nice to be recognised for your hard work and I was especially proud for our colleagues who work incredibly hard to deliver for our customers.
“And because we are so committed to the North West and Derry, it meant that little bit more being awarded by our peers and colleagues in the region.” Find Insurance is also an active member of the Chamber, having been the organisation’s official corporate insurance partner for the past four years.
“We were also really pleased to support the President’s Annual Dinner in 2021, the first major
Chamber event post-pandemic”, says Colin. “Especially after all the upheaval and stress on businesses for the previous 18 months or so, it was brilliant to be involved in a night where people and friends could meet again and let their hair down.
“The theme of the evening as well really resonated with us – ‘think local, back local, support local’. We pride ourselves on being able to compete with multinational brokers who are much larger than us and the reason we’re able to do this is through sticking to the ethos of being large enough to do the job but small enough to care about the quality service we provide our customers. This comes back to our commitment to our city and our region.”
The Derry-based brokers were also recently named in Insurance Age’s Top 100 UK Independent Insurance Brokers, one of Northern Ireland’s only brokers named in the list and an achievement which lists the business alongside peers from across the rest of the UK with turnovers of up to £750m. “Being named in the Top 100 Independent Insurance Brokers across the whole of the UK really meant a lot to everyone at the company and demonstrates just how far we’ve come over the past number of years in particular”, says Karen. “Since 2015 alone, we’ve more than doubled our turnover and we’re on course to keep growing and building sustainably, even with all the challenges in the economy at the moment.”
What advice do the advisors have for businesses who are trying their best to navigate these challenges? “It’s always really important to keep an open and regular dialogue with your broker. The economic and fiscal environment is likely to remain fairly volatile in the short-to-medium term and well into 2023 at least. Working closely with your broker means you can spot potential headaches as early as possible and gives you the space and time to deal with them head on”, explains Karen.
And as for the next fifty years, Colin is optimistic about Find Insurance’s prospects. “We’re confident about the future. We’ve worked exceptionally hard to carve out our status as one of Northern Ireland’s leading independent insurance brokers. But, at our core, we remain a Derry business, one which works closely and collaboratively with businesses across our region, for the good of our region.
“Our success has been built on the foundations laid by my parents back in the seventies and we’re proud to be continuing that legacy today. We’re excited about another fifty years in the North West, serving our customers and helping businesses grow sustainably and securely for the good of our local economy.”
CavanaghKelly bolsters its partner team with two promotions
Local accountancy and business advisory practice CavanaghKelly has welcomed two new partners to its team.
CavanaghKelly is one of Northern Ireland’s leading accountancy and advisory practices, formed in 2003 when Sean Cavanagh and Des Kelly merged their individual businesses. The practice has now grown to a team of over 100 across its offices, which includes Dungannon, Omagh, Enniskillen, and Belfast.
Anita Doris and Steven Lindsay have recently been promoted within the company, bolstering the firm’s leadership team and adding expertise and value for CavanaghKelly’s many clients. Anita Doris joined the team in 2017 and has made a significant impact growing the practice’s advisory department and service offering. A qualified actuary, Anita has extensive experience supporting clients in advising on transactions and development of strategic and business plans for both private sector and public sector organisations.
Steven Lindsay joined CavanaghKelly in July 2018, and leads the practice’s Governance, Risk and Consulting team providing services to clients in the public, community and voluntary, and private sectors. Prior to joining the practice, Steven was a Managing Partner of a medium-sized accountancy practice and worked at Chief Executive level in Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland. Steven is also currently a member of the board of the Londonderry Chamber of Commerce.
Speaking on the promotions, CavanaghKelly Managing Partner Des Kelly said “We are absolutely thrilled to welcome Anita and Steven to the partner team. As a practice, we have continued to invest in our people to ensure we can provide all our clients with the best advice when they need it. Anita and Steven bring new energy to drive our strategy forward, alongside a wealth of experience, that will not only support our clients, but also develop our next group of leaders. These partner appointments allow us to further develop our specialist offering to clients across the private, public, and charitable and not-for-profit sectors, and really demonstrate where we see growth as a practice over the coming years.
“The commitment and enthusiasm Anita and Steven have demonstrated to the practice, our people, and our clients over the years is a testament to them”, Des continued. “The knowledge and expertise that they bring to our partner team is unrivalled and further solidifies our full service offering for our clients. I look forward to working with them in their new roles, bringing our growth strategy to fruition.”
For more information, visit cavanaghkelly.com.
NWRC – Unlocking the potential of today’s workforce
Business Skills Manager Sinead Hawkins explains NWRC’s drive to provide opportunities for upskilling and job creation in the North West.
North West Regional College’s Business Support Centre is ready. Ready to support businesses, employees, and innovators, while working towards delivering responsive and flexible employment and skills strategies that support job creation, local economic development, and labour market inclusion.
Covid-19, Brexit, and the recent costof-living crisis have brought challenges to both businesses and individuals. We are passionate about providing opportunities for upskilling and job creation in the North West and our success speaks for itself.
In the last year, the Business Support team across all our campuses reskilled and retrained over 1480 individuals across all skill programmes, particularly in areas identified for economic recovery. Annually, we support over 300 local businesses with training, upskilling, and innovation, helping businesses to upskill their staff and develop new products.
We continue to deliver Assured Skills Academies programmes for FinTrU, Alchemy Technologies, and numerous engineering businesses such as Flemings via the welding academy. Through these academies, we have upskilled over 120 people in the last year into employment again creating employment for the North West. We upskill people of all ages, allowing them to take advantage of the significant employment opportunities available within the above companies.
And we continue to invest in and grow our existing innovation footprint. The Foodovation Centre, Product Design Centre, and DIAL Centre provide stateof-the-art facilities with experienced teams in place to support businesses with innovation and skills to meet business needs. The NWRC is also looking at emerging sectors such as augmented and virtual reality and industry 4.0 automation with investments being made to expand in these areas.
The Northern Ireland College of the Future report argues that colleges are the vehicles to regionally balance the economy, support businesses to adapt to a green and digital economy, and provide better skills opportunities for those out of work.
We are a major partner in the City Deal through the LMP (Labour Market Partnerships) Skills Academies with local councils providing skills academies and upskilling programmes, meeting the needs of local people and employers. The team at the Business Support Centre (BSC) are committed to supporting the growth of skills in priority sectors that include IT/digital, Advanced Manufacturing, Health and Life Sciences, Green Technologies, and Leadership and Management. We offer support to industry through bespoke training and upskilling specific to your business needs.
Our expert team also assist businesses to source funding to undertake applied innovation, research and development, and then foster this innovation by delivering tailored solutions in areas of new products, processes, or services to support businesses to be more innovative and competitive.
As an example of our impact earlier this year, NWRC collaborated with locally -based software company Foods Connected providing the company an accredited Microsoft Azure software training course with funding from the Department for the Economy funded Skills Focus programme.
Business Skills Manager Sinead Hawkins
Business Skills Manager Sinead Hawkins with Andrew Nicell, HR Manager at Foods Connected
This collaboration with NWRC helped the company’s developers accelerate the advancement of their products using Azure. NWRC also supported the company through training courses in leadership and management and personnel development.
Andrew Nicell, HR Manager at Foods Connected, said “One of the key values of Foods Connected is investment in our team. We know that by investing in our team and in the development of their skills this will help us to nurture and retain a strong and innovative workforce. Our ongoing collaboration with NWRC BSC has helped us to identify ways in which we can continue to improve the team, their skills, their career and essentially their lives.”
NWRC has a strong track record of collaborating with local business to deliver real benefits leveraging DfE-funded programmes such as Assured Skills and Skill Up, to deliver high-quality industry-relevant training to ensure employers have the pipeline of talent that they need to keep growing. In July this year, 19 of the participants on the VIII Alchemy Technologies DfEfunded Assured Skills Academy received an offer of employment after completing their 5 weeks pre-employment training. Alchemy Technology Services CEO and Founder John Harkin said “Our Academies have been very successful and we have seen our people thrive in their roles. The team has cemented Alchemy’s place as a key player in the insurance software industry.”
Recently, the college worked with the Western Trust to provide fully funded accredited courses through Skill Up, the Flexible Skills programme. Delivered remotely, the courses offered to the Western Trust allowed their staff to retrain and reskill in Level 3 and Level 5 courses in Leadership and Management. Feedback from participants on the courses has been very positive and we are delighted that our skills teams has been able to utilise DfE funding to provide these courses to such organisations. We hope to develop this partnership and hope to offer this training to more cohorts in the future.
The BSC has a dedicated team of staff with specialist knowledge and skills in the technical areas of food development, creative and digital media, virtual and augmented reality, CAD and product development, ICT and software development, and electronic engineering, and are complemented by the NWRC’s highly experienced academic team.
Our door is always open to meet with businesses, from fledgling entrepreneurs and micro companies to long-standing indigenous and multi-national businesses. We will tailor solutions to meet your needs.
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